Tips and Tricks
Crucial Skills Swimming Swimming is essential for players' travel. It uses the boost players get from drifting to increase speed. At times, it can double one's speed at no additional energy cost. To use, hold shift and move forward, alternating left and right to activate the drift boost. Ships with a slower turn rate and generators make this easier and can increase the speed significantly (enough to have a 2.4 ship able to outrun the same model of a ship with 3.2 thrust). As you can see, the thrust increases greatly, even without turbo (although it is recommended, as energy tech increases its effectiveness and it multiplies your thrust, making it more effective the more thrust tech you get). Swimming variations (only for rank 16 ships): * Turbo-Slipstream: using 2 turbos at the same time while swimming allows you to go extremely fast, sometimes faster than hyperspace (and with infinite use!) but costing a lot of energy. * Trans-warp: '''turbo+Warp Drive, with at least 2.95 energy, it increases initial speed and warp range (enough to make it jump 2 sectors in a 1.4 total thrust Elite Raider). The disadvantage of ammo is usually compensated by the jump made. * '''Transpace: turbo+hyperspace, with at least 2.95 energy, it increases its speed. Running Away to dock with a base Fleeing back to safety while in enemy territory is one of the most important parts of playing Torn. Getting back to base will save one's progress, preventing loss of exp/money (and when docking your ship is fully repaired, restocked and recharged). It is suggested that players immediately return to a safe sector and save progress if they have met one of these conditions: * Players have gained around 5-10% of their ship's net worth in money, or more than a million.. * Players have increased their exp by 5-10%, or more than 1,000 xp.. * Players are at 10% total ammo (finding a Planet replenishes ammo). * If one risks it and goes for more, the end of a killstreak should signify the return to base. This can prevent unnecessary and unfortunate losses of xp, life, and money (especially for the weakest players (or the more experienced ones who lose more xp when killed)). If under fire, don't run unless you have more than 0.8 ship thrust total (with swimming, turbo, etc) or you are being attacked with some type of massive weapon such as Grav Bomb, Muon Ray (or someone placing a turret...). You are more likely to defeat the enemy than to escape (unless it's a player or you are outnumbered, in that case, it depends more of the difference of your techs, weapons, ships, and tactical experience). Other skills 'Juking (Q and E):' When charging at an enemy, juking to the side before being hit can maximize damage done to health lost with low energy use. Helpful when trying to get high killstreaks with lower health or for small position adjustments. Players should juke, on average, at 100 AU from the enemy/target. One juke can dodge accurate projectiles, 4-5 for inaccurate, 2-3 is recommended for missiles (70% dodge rate at best), and lasers cannot be dodged. After Juking missiles, Players must remain still to avoid taking damage (only if it's a bot, if it's a player, remaining still could make you an easy target for powerful aimed weapons such as Minigun, Spreadshot, Submachinegun or Muon Ray). Zooming out a bit to see the bullets/missiles helps immensely unless you are already too laggy Shielding (Down Arrow or S): The Shield is sometimes far more useful than trying evasive maneuvers, especially when you cannot avoid being hit or when you have high energy regeneration (or when the enemy uses a weapon that has slow recharge). Shield highly increases combat endurance, reducing damage to 25% at the cost of high energy (this is only an inconvenience if the opponent is a massive bulky ship that can withstand several seconds of bombardment with ease (for example a rank 17 with 2000 HP) and that ship has a shotgun or another powerful weapon). Especially recommended to avoid the "death by a thousand paper cuts", after a missile swarm (or other powerful weapons) that you can't evade, to maximize the efficiency of the Kill Streak or when after juking you cannot remain still for a reason or another. Zooming out a bit to see the bullets/missiles helps immensely unless you have a slow connection, in which case you see everything with great LAG. Zooming out: An exploit lets some players see farther, giving a good tactical advantage. It also helps to fix some bugs in chat.'' REMEMBER TO ZOOM IN TO READ CHAT, UPGRADES, ETC. PROTECT YOUR EYES!'' Planet Maps: This is not a real torn.space skill, but it's just some common sense, creating a map to locate planets around the galaxy for replenishing ammo, doing quests, etc. Useful Weapons Ion Mine Beam and Mining Laser: The Mining beams have the best dps and energy efficiency ratio of all weapons. Best for mining and very important early game for getting $$. In the Elite Quarrier/Elite Beluga, this beams create a mining web that targets all nearby asteroids at once, allowing better coverage, and allowing some type of defense against another ship shooting asteroids at you. Unfortunately, they can only target asteroids and the Elite Quarrier/Elite Beluga. Minigun: * Damage Per Second: 50x2(100) = 2x8/0.16 * Damage Per Energy: 2.66x2(5.33) = 2x8/3 * Total Damage: 8000 = 2x8x500 ammo Very useful when low on energy. Not only that, with 50x2 dps, it has the third best damage per second of all pulse weapons. Good all round for PvP. Its high bullet speed and reload make damage more uniform and make it more likely to hit an agile or retreating enemy. It's also a two-sided weapon because it creates LAG waves which can increase two-way latency in slow connections in your ship and all nearby ships in the sector, especially the ones which have zoomed out. Unfortunately, it cost 30,000 and is only unlocked at the rank 6 ship. Plasma gun: * Damage Per Second: 112.5 = 45/0.4 * Damage Per Energy: 5.625 = 45/8 * Total Damage: 7875 = 45x175 ammo The fourth dps(112.5) that can damage enemies, it's an uotstanding weapon. Very useful for destroying bases as quickly as possible, provided that one has the energy. Extremely cheap and can be unlocked at the rank 2 ship. Some downsides are the lower range, ammo and bullet speed than minigun, making it not very useful for chases nor charging at enemies. Spreadshot: * Damage Per Second: 150 = 3x8/0.16 * Damage Per Energy: 6 = 3x8/4 * Total Damage: 12000 = 3x8x500 ammo The best dps of pulse weapons (150) and the best energy efficiency. It's exactly the same as minigun but with 3 barrels instead of one, and shooting spread, so the advantage of doing extra damage if you are at point-blank range. However, it's good when you have a swarm of enemies. It costs 30,000 and is unlocked at rank 6. Submachinegun: * Damage Per Second: 125 = 5x10/0.4 * Damage Per Energy: 8 = 5 x 4 x2,5 * Total Damage: 2000 = 10/5x1000 (there are only 200 shots) Pretty good, with one of the highest dps. Its main disadvantages are its low ammo (for each shot you spend 5 ammo (5 bullets), so in fact, it's only 200 shots), it's relatively high energy consumption (compared with Spreadshot) and that it needs to be aimed. Shotgun: * Damage Per Second: 133.3 = 4x20/0.6 * Damage Per Energy: 6.666 = 80/12 * Total Damage: 3200 = 40x80 damage per 100% accurate shot Despite not being good at long range because of its difficulty to control, it does a real punch at close range or helps to damage multiple enemies at once, like Spreadshot but with more than twice damage per bullet, 4 bullets, being able to kill turrets and being unlocked at rank 3. Its main disadvantage is its low ammo. Turbo: Makes you go fast for low energy. With enough energy, you can use it with no energy cost. Vital for enhanced swimming and all Rank 16 special swimming variations. Missiles: Good for killing slow runners. With Missile Swarm, you can sometimes do a good beating, especially against turrets. However, due to its low ammo, it's not very recommended in the long run (unless you use the base exploit) and at close range, they only do 1 damage. EMP Missile: For when you need to escape or kill a fast enemy. Good, especially against Elite Raider/Sailfish which has a double weakness to all EMP weapons. There's also a strange advantage/disadvantage: when EMPd, all turret missiles, and orbs ignore you. Generator: Gives energy (6% of the recharge with your current energy level, so it gets more useful the more energy tech you have) and less charge time. Decrease turn rate to make swimming easier, especially on more agile ships. Cloak: It disguises you and you cannot be harmed by missiles that were aimed at you after cloaking, or against lasers (with the exception of turret's laser). Exceptionally good at bases because in the Energy Disk/Missile range you cannot be harmed while cloaked, and good at running when the other options are unavailable or good at stalking with high energy. Its only limit is its low ammo. Hypno Ray: Very Useful for summoning a big fleet of bots. The advantages are its cheap price and being unlocked at ship 5. Its main disadvantages are the single-use and that after getting 5 bots, some of them won't follow you after you get too far from them. Hadron Beam: With its long range (the longest of true damaging beams) it's useful when you have high energy tech and a ship with small agility and an enemy ship is already weakened and it moves to avoid getting hurt, so you can kill it faster without the need of turning your ship and with no ammo cost. Extremely useful when combined with Turbo. If you are cloaked and the invisibility still remains after the cooldown, it can be used to do a surprise attack or to detect cloaked vessels (for some reason while cloaked some beam weapons might aim and target cloaked ships too). Peaceful Farming Delivery and Mining Turbo with swimming with R2 till u get rank 7/8 ship then switch to bot hunting. Radar 1.7+ suggested. For Mining, collect around 2000 of each ore. Then, go to a base and choose a Mining Quest. For deliveries is advised to have a fast ship and zoom out to know the planet's location before accepting the quest. Then, draw a planet map. For Deliveries, the rank 16 is recommended. For Mining, the ranks 2, 12, and 17. Weapons recommended (In order of importance): #Mining Laser - for mining ore efficiently (it's compulsory to have a weapon capable of mining asteroids for the mining Quests). ##Ion Mine Beam - Is more reliable than Mining Laser but more expensive. #Turbo - for speed and dodging enemy attacks/ships. #Plasma gun - for defending yourself. ##Minigun - Is more reliable than Plasma gun but more expensive. #EMP Missile/Cloak - for escaping from bots. #Hull Nanobots - healing- not very recommended in slow ships because under constant attack the energy and time used for that weapon is better used in using a hyperdrive, turbo, cloak, Pulse Wave, etc. Aggressive Farming/General Combat Bots: Relatively straightforward to kill (unless 5 of them surround and attack you): charge straight at them, firing weapons 50-100 meters before they are in range. Usually, you will kill the bot or the bot's health will drop enough such that its retreating scripts activate. Then it is a simple matter to Missile, Laser, or chase them with Minigun to finish them off. Quarriers/Belugas and Destroyers/Atlas give the most exp (200-300). However, here are some things to know: * All bots have the same linear targeting as the bases so if players decide to flee, it is not advised to fly in a straight line. * All bots are hardcoded to always use Shift; it increases their turn speed and lets them swim. If players do not kill or damage them to make them flee, they will circle around and will usually be able to hit you with forward facing weapons. * Bots start to move towards you at 1000 meters. * Bots start shooting at you at 250 meters. Weapons recommended (In order of importance): #Plasma gun - for killing bots. ##Minigun - Is more reliable than Plasma gun but more expensive. #Turbo - for speed. #Missile - for killing escaping bots (unless they are too fast, in that case use another weapon). ##Heavy Missile/Missile Swarm - Is more reliable than Missile but more expensive, and with less ammo. #EMP Missile/Cloak - for stopping escaping/attacking bots. #Laser - for killing weakened/extremely maneuverable bots. ##Hadron Beam - Is more reliable than Laser but more expensive, and needs more time and energy to recharge. #Hull Nanobots - healing. Players should use Juking and Shield as much as possible (unless you are capable to fire cloaked, in that case, they are not really as necessary). Among bots, there are some especially dangerous situations: * Bots with Missile Swarm: 'these bots can ''easily kill unprepared/inexperienced players. They are very hard to kill. This is because their AI is different. Instead of charging headlong into your bullets, they will kite from a range and unleash deadly salvos of usually unavoidable missiles. You can't hit them but they can hit you. ** How to detect them (and run ASAP): as you attack them, if the enemy swerves at 250 meters, it is either a bot with a Missile Swarm or a player, in both cases, you're gonna get chew-chew-ka-screwed if you are not careful. ** How to kill them (if you want to: Missile swarm does 120 damage): when you realize you are fighting one of these bots, zoom out immediately so you may see the bot. Sometimes, however, it is a better idea to skip this and do step two immediately (and in slow computers zooming out is not recommended at all. Either depend on fast reflexes or accept your fate). *** '''A) You will be able to see the missile swarm. Use shield before it hits you. Continue to do this until they run out of ammo. Once they run out, they will switch to another weapon. React quickly and kill them. *** B) '''EMP Missile and hope the missiles don't kill you before you kill the bot. *** '''C) Get up close and don't let it escape. Missile Swarm does only 1 damage at close range before the missile splits. * Bots with Minigun/Spreadshot: these are especially deadly against players who play in slow connections, because they may freeze the controls and make your ship be almost as defenseless as if EMPd or at least make you feel like a noob when aiming, which can be lethal when you are swarmed by enemy bots. It's advised to attack these ships when they are alone or to attack them while you are cloaked, or they are under EMP. Also they do a very large amount of damage. * Bots with very large amounts of HP (R12 & R13): they are hard to kill. Often times, they have more HP than a base. Low-efficiency weapons like Lasers and Missiles have a limited effect on them. For players with less than 500 HP, it is suggested to shoot, juke, then retreat to a distance and repeat. ADD GIF * Rank 5: because of their agility and suprising amount of health, they are extremely difficult to shot once you get at close range. When they use Shotgun, they are lethal. Its best to go out shooting; you may kill it if you're lucky, (or a high level). Plasma Gun and some damaging beams are recommended. Kill Streak: In this case, you should be killing bots every 30 seconds or less to maximize HP regen and keep the Kill Streak. Turbo suggested to keep it up, since it gives you n*1000 $ per kill, being n the kill streak number. * A 10x killstreak will yield $50k cash minimum. If one collects the extra money drops this increases. * A 20x killstreak will yield around $200k. * A 60x kill streak will give you around $1 million. * A 100x kill streak will give you around $5 million. *note: now it's too risky for the benefit you can realistically get in most cases, or average bot density has been nerfed (so you can't kill them fast enough) or they get too aggressive and attack in packs (which means a quick death). Turrets Turrets have four weapons. Rifle, which uses Linear targeting, Missiles, Energy Disk, and Laser. Currently, some useful methods have been created for an easy turret kill: * Working with a team (xxxredxxx Method): ** One orbiting, absorbing or avoiding damage, and/or using some form of EMP. ** The others shooting Stock Gun, Reverse Gun, Plasma Gun, Minigun, Spreadshot, Muon Ray, Missile Swarm or Submachinegun further from the turret than the orbiting player, such that the turret only targets the orbiting player. ** Sometimes you'll be extremely lucky to find a fleet of bots attacking a base (the most common case is when someone, included you, had hypnoed a huge fleet of bots, albeit a few of them have been seen attacking the base if it was destroyed before they entered the sector). In that situation, you just need to be further than the bots and fire to the base. * 150 HP, 2 MIssile swarms and at least 2.9 energy (2nd tardis' method): ** Stay at distance, usually at 700-300 units. From there, fire all your ammo towards the base. It will be destroyed. This way is useful when someone has placed a turret near a black hole. ** If you are near a planet, you can use it, combined with cloak and high energy level, to destroy a base even under the attack of the infinite-missile-swarm base attack and survive. ** The anti-exploit variant adds to the things above a Pulse Wave when entering the sector and when the exploiter tries to reach base to kick the person out of the base so he/she cannot use that trick to obliterate any ship in the sector, and if the enemy is not cloaked, obliterate him. * 400 HP, 1.25 energy tech, EMP Missile, and Minigun/Plasma Gun (joyous18's method | updated 9th February 2019): ** Clear all enemies from the base sector (may take a while. Make sure to have enough health before continuing). ** Zoom out. Max zoom makes it easier to dodge rifle but harder to see incoming enemies. Choose wisely. ** Charge forward at an angle towards the base, maybe rotating a bit (turret aim AI was improved so the angle is different. However in fast ships it still works). If that doesn't work, charge straight toward the base, using Q '''and E''' to confuse it. The base will not use its linear targeting as it sees Jukes as instantaneous movements too fast for it to take into account. It is easier to go to the direct left or right of bases rather than above or below because of the extra sight. *** OPTIONAL: Use EMP/EMP missile around 100-200 away from the base. (EMP Missile currently has a bug that makes it not target the base sometimes so maybe skip this step and use shield instead or just save your energy, or use cloak with high energy level). ** Stop when you are in range and switch to Minigun or Plasma Gun (Be careful to make sure you are actually hitting the base. This folly has cost me my life many times). ** If you are too close, the base will use its laser. Use shift + down '''to move out of range to the lower dps energy disk or missile zone. ** Depending on your speed, the critical point is when your health is below 150. One cannot escape the missiles or orbs with less health (unless you can use Elite Raider swimming variations or you have a way to confuse the targeting system). * '''600 life points, 1.63 total thrust, specifically made for ranks 12 and 18, Shotgun and Impulse Mine (24sans24's method): ** Use Impulse Mine at 720 units from the base, aiming your ship to the turret. This will avoid rifle shots touching you. ** Get to 50 units from the base, where its laser will hit you and not the other weapons. ** Fire Shotgun to it. It will usually kill the base in 15 shots. You can use some shield bursts to block some of the damage, but only with high energy. Albeit Spreadshot is also useful, it won't be as effective for a short period as it doesn't carry the same punch * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukV-eV0wBHw 500 life or more and 1.3 energy tech]: (1st tardis' method): ** 1st Variant: no cloak. It's recommended to have 600 HP or more *** Charge forward at an angle towards the base. It is easier to go to the direct left or right of bases rather than above or below because of the extra sight. *** Stop when you see the base and switch to minigun (Be careful to make sure BOTH of the minigun streams are hitting the base). *** If you are too close, the base will use its laser. Use shift + down '''to move out of range to the lower dps energy disk and missile zone. ** '''2nd Variant: with cloak and more than 2.4 energy., and high speed (so in most cases ranks 12 and 17 are the worst ships to use this method). This one with enough energy is not really limited by your hull. However, just to be safe you need to have at least 500HP: *** Charge forward at an angle towards the base (and in the end or beginning, turn to the turret). It is slightly easier to avoid the shots if you make some type of semicircle while drifting. *** When you are at just slightly less than rifle range but more than laser range, cloak (However, you can cloak sooner to go to the next step faster, which is better during Raids, if you feel capable of reaching the turret before the cooldown ends). This will give you extra time to aim and the turret won't be able to harm you with new missiles or orbs. *** Fire weapon (in this case Minigun, Plasma Gun or Submachinegun are the best options, as their concentrated dps is the highest and time is vital). With enough energy you'll be able to fire cloaked for a moment, giving you a crucial advantage. ** There's also a sub-variant of this 2nd method, specially made for ranks 12 and 17 (fishy's variant) that requires at least 1000HP (1500 HP for the Elite Quarrier/Elite Beluga) and where swimming is crucial to enhance your speed (highly recommended to be above 0.55), and can be complemented by some juking and using turbo. At the end, you'll have approximately less than a third of your life (since the ship cannot evade most bullets, even by swimming (which only works to being shot by fewer bullets), cloaking only works to avoid bots attacking you, while in an empty sector, is wise to cloak when reaching base so you regenerate more HP before the attack) and you'll need to cloak again to avoid bots attacking you and urgent repair (so it's more effective in sectors A5, B6, F2, and G3). * Elite Conqueror/Elite Leviathan exclusive method: ** Use your special weapon to instantly kill a base. At any point, if an aggressive enemy ship appears in the sector, abort immediately unless you are certain you can kill the base before it becomes a problem or you are just firing cloaked and you are certain that ship is a bot. If the enemy ship just spawned from the base, be careful, since that ship could just dock and undock to protect the turret and to use the instant recharge to fire an infinite Missile Swarm or EMP Missile launch. Also, note that practice makes perfect. The non-brute-force methods can cause death if not performed correctly. Players get 50xp per kill and 50,000 money. Base quests increase this to $125K and 87 xp. Spy Quests increase the total profit to more than 350k money and 125 xp. Raids: When a Raid starts, you have a 10 minute-lapse to kill as many bases as you can, getting 2 points from killing a base and 1 for being in the same sector as the base destroyed or for killing an opponent who earned a point. In order to get the reward, your team needs to get more points than the opposite team (getting 40k $ per individual point). Other tips *The shift key also allows people to move backwards, by pressing S or down arrow, a very useful ability. *Drifting also increases turn speed. *Suggested play path Category:Help